This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.

Notorious Gangster Chhota Rajan Now Sent To CBI Custody

Notorious Gangster Chhota Rajan Now Sent To CBI Custody
Indian national Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje, 55, known in India as Chhota Rajan, is brought out from a holding cell at the Bali police headquarters in Denpasar on Bali island on November 2, 2015. An alleged Indian crime boss wanted in his home country for up to 20 murders has been arrested in Indonesia after two decades on the run, police said October 26. Nikalje had been evading police in several countries for years, with Interpol flagging him as a wanted man back in 1995. AFP PHOTO / SONNY TUMBELAKA (Photo credit should read SONNY TUMBELAKA/AFP/Getty Images)
SONNY TUMBELAKA via Getty Images
Indian national Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje, 55, known in India as Chhota Rajan, is brought out from a holding cell at the Bali police headquarters in Denpasar on Bali island on November 2, 2015. An alleged Indian crime boss wanted in his home country for up to 20 murders has been arrested in Indonesia after two decades on the run, police said October 26. Nikalje had been evading police in several countries for years, with Interpol flagging him as a wanted man back in 1995. AFP PHOTO / SONNY TUMBELAKA (Photo credit should read SONNY TUMBELAKA/AFP/Getty Images)

NEW DELHI -- Underworld don Chhota Rajan was today sent to CBI custody by a court here, a day after he was brought from Indonesian city of Bali.

Deported after being on the run for 27 years, the 55-year-old gangster, whose real name is Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje, was remanded in CBI custody by a magistrate who conducted the proceedings at the CBI headquarters in view of security reasons.

"CBI has got the custody of Rajan in one of the cases against him," a CBI spokesperson said without elaborating.

Rajan, once a close aide of Dawood Ibrahim, has been brought to the country to face trial in over 70 cases of murder, extortion and drug smuggling in Delhi and Mumbai.

Yesterday, he was taken straight to the CBI headquarters where he was subjected to a preliminary round of questioning.

After his arrest in Bali on October 25, India had pressed for his early deportation, which, however, got delayed due to closure of Bali's international airport due to spewing of volcanic ash from a nearby mountain.

Upon his arrival here, he was taken into preventive custody of Interpol division of the CBI till the central probe agency completes legal formalities for registering a case of allegedly procuring fake passport and takes over the cases handed over by Maharashtra government.

Earlier, the spokesperson had said that Rajan was medically fit and required no dialysis.

Contact HuffPost India

Also On HuffPost:

Mumbai

Here's What Indian Cities Look Like From Space

Close
This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.